Reflective essay

 Reflective essay

As any child starts their first day of class all over again each year they have the same reaction. Who will be in my class? What will I wear? Is my teacher cool? But the one that gets us the most is the excitement of walking in through those doors and wondering where we will be sitting in the classroom. There is nothing like the first day of school, I would have never thought that I would have learned everything I have from this class. Before intro to technology for educators, I would have never thought of using technology in the classroom. My thoughts were students will take advantage and the reason I say this is because I once was a young kid who never went directly to do their homework. One thing to realize is that you have to introduce technology to the students slowly and in a productive one which can grasp their attention. One website that helped me understand more about integrating technology in the classroom was EduTopia which the describes the many different ways to use technology. I thought that the one of the best ways to use technology in a classroom is in a way they would never expect it, for instance when you have a field trip planned but you can't go because of the weather you can always surprise them by taking a virtual field trip where they can do the same things but within the classroom. I enjoyed this class because of the many ways I learned how to use technology; for instance we used GPS devices to find clues throughout the school about questions we had to answer in the classroom for extra credit or a grade.We also learned about teaching with educational websites, like DIIGO you can use to highlight websites and bookmark them, as well sticky note important parts that you find interesting. I thought it was a very interesting website because it allows you to share with others different things you find interesting like Educational websites like PBS or if you found a video that was captivating and you wanted to share it with others.

Resources

Edutopia | K-12 Education & Learning Innovations with Proven Strategies that Work." Edutopia | K-12 Education & Learning Innovations with Proven Strategies that Work. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2013. <http://www.edutopia.org/>.  

PBS: Public Broadcasting Service." PBS: Public Broadcasting Service. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Apr. 2013. 
 <http://www.pbs.org/>.

Maloy, Robert W.. Transforming learning with new technologies. 2nd ed. Boston: Pearson, 2014. Print. 

Journal post 11: Engaging Teachers and Students in Learning and Self-Reflection

How can teachers and students use digital portfolios as tools for learning?

Though this maybe something difficult to use in a classroom it would be much useful towards both teachers and students; my theory is based on the fact that teachers could track how affective everything the kids learned throughout the school year. Like what our Professor Cole is doing she is giving us a project that is to make a website and put it together using all the tools that she has given us throughout the semester. Remembering all of the difficulties that I had throughout high school with keeping up with all of the material I had learned in class I find that this performance based web portfolio would be very helpful towards students, especially those who are in high school that aren’t doing that great in a subject; it helps them focus on the material they aren’t doing so great in. I also believe that giving students the opportunity to have their own portfolio not only gives them the opportunity to better themselves but it also helps them learn a new way of organizing themselves, that way in the future they are able to track their own progress.

Tech Tool: Task Stream

Task Stream is a popular digital archiving tool used for web design and portfolio building.  Task Stream provides users with a variety of design options including presentation portfolios, learning or work portfolios tailored to document one’s learning process, and resource portfolios that can be accessed by both the world and a specified closed community. Other features include a standards manager, lesson plan and unit builders, and customizable measurement tools. The below link gives a further explanation on how to use e-portfolios in the classroom.

Summary:

I enjoyed reading this chapter because it has so many different choices in order to introduce ways you can use technology to track your students as well as have them track their own performance. It explains how to use the performance web based portfolio for your students and your own convenience. But it is not just about helping the students keep track of their performance but also about finding new ways for the students to improve themselves as well as the teachers come up with new ways to help the students further their education.